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We are beginning as a congregation, house Bible studies for prayer, support, reading of Scripture, and encouragement to engage in the corporeal works of Mercy. I'm going to try to provide some "starting points" for the groups to help the discussion that takes place. Of course, on-line discussion is good as well!

Acts 1:1-11

Think about how the story of "American history" was told you in your public school education. Why did they tell you the story? Why that way? Who were its heroes? Its villains? How did this history attempt to form you into what type of persons?

Acts tells the story of the church that we, as Christians, must still find ourselves within -- extending the story into history. The Acts of the Apostles is not over, but continuing -- your meeting will be an extension of the story. It therefore needs to be read "within", not as an observer looking at a boa constrictor in a zoo like Dudley Dursley (that's for Tasha, my first Harry Potter reference on my blog -- she has been pushing me to including Harry Potter reference). As we read, how do we hear the story? With whom do we identify? Who is its "heroes" and "villains"? Into what type of people is the Spirit trying to form us in the reading of this text?

The passage itself is divided into two sections: vv. 1-5, a prologue to the whole book, and transition from the Gospels to the time of the church; and vv. 6-11, the ascension.

Vv. 1-5: Theophilus means "Lover of God". It could have been a real person, but it forces the reader to identify themselves as "a lover of God" as one reads. Why does the book begin by reminding "Theophilus" of what has gone before? What does the book point to as significant in the life of Jesus of Nazareth? Why the importance of the life of the Apostles with the risen Jesus following his crucifixion and resurrection?

Vv. 6-11. Does Jesus ever answer the question of the disciples? How? What is the relationship between the "restoration of Israel" and the "giving of the Holy Spirit"? How does Jesus' charge to the apostles relate to his immediate ascension? How do the "two men" refer to the "restoration of Israel" as well? Moreover, how does this set the agenda for our lives together? What is the mission of the church today in relationship to the charge of Jesus, the promise of the Spirit, the restoration of Israel, and the return of Christ?

I hope this is enough to get your started. I'm going to have to learn exactly what is best for you -- so please, give me feedback as this all develops!

Posted by johnwright at 11:13 AM | Comments (8)

Sunday was the first Sunday of "regular time" -- following Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Trinity Sundays. I found the Scriptures fascinating in this light. It also took us to Romans 3 -- where we have recently discovered that Paul did not think of the "righteousness of God" having appeared through "faith in Jesus", but rather, "through the faithfulness of Jesus." The difference is rather pronounced -- for one, the righteousness is found in the "believing human"; the other "in Jesus" in whom "the human" may participate by believing. My previous focuses had been on the Christological aspects of this shift. What I saw was, instead, in the readings a wonderful commentary on "whose justice" -- and since it is God's, Real Justice.

As always, your comments are appreciated.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28
Romans 3:21-25a,28
Matthew 7:21-27

Introduction: Please stand with me. We need a little multi-cultural experience here. Let’s go to the Midwest of the United States in the late 1960’s. All together now! “The foolish man built his house upon the sand; the foolish man built his house upon the sand; the foolish man built his house upon the sand; and the rains came a-tumbling down. The rains came down and the floods came up; the rains came down and the floods came up; the rains came down and the floods came up; and the house of the man fell flat.”

Now that we’ve gotten that out of our system, it is really fascinating to hear all our readings together this morning. What’s interesting is that the readings don’t really make a lot of sense together as they are translated – the Romans passage sticks out like a sore back. Here is the command to build life on words, the words of the Law through Jesus, and then the Romans passage suggests that it’s faith in Jesus that matters – our faith, not our life. This is a case of the lectionary holding an ancient interpretation of the church before there was a thing called the United States, or even Germany or Italy. But the church was. Let’s see if we can make sense of our OT and Gospel readings in light of our reading from Romans. And it all begins with a simple affirmation:

1. The righteousness, the justice of God has appeared in the faithfulness of Jesus for those who believe.

The world surrounds us right now in the Western world with different understandings of justice. On one side, justice requires a very limited government except for a military to defend the national borders. Then democracy can provide freedom, respect for human rights, the condition for every individual person free to pursue their own self-interests. No, others might say, justice requires equal distribution of goods, overseen by the state so that all might be free to live autonomous lives. They seem very different, but in fact, they are very much the same. In each case, justice is separate from a person’s righteousness; public policy different than personal morality. Justice in both cases is all about right procedures, right processes, abstract, rationale, “fair” so that each individual might ultimately be “free” – not have to depend on anyone. God, when invoked, becomes the abstract Power, the Great Will that sets the conditions to impose justice upon those around me.

Paul in Romans has a very different sense of justice. For Paul one cannot separate justice from righteousness, policy from the type of persons who institute it, a public realm from a private realm. Justice is a virtue, the type of a character of a person to allow them to do the good. For Paul the righteousness of God is not ultimately about God’s will, but God’s character. The justice of God, the righteousness of God is nothing more than the very Revelation of God, God’s Own Life. God’s justice, God’s righteousness is what created all that really is, out of nothing. And now, Paul proclaims, amidst a world fallen into sin, a world fallen into a perversion of the justice in which it was made, God’s righteousness has appeared. We can’t see God; we can’t experience God by our own activities, for God is not creation. How then can we know justice? God has shown us God’s righteousness, God’s justice. Where? In the faithfulness of Jesus. Look at v. 22. God’s righteousness, the justice through whom all was created, did not appear through faith in Jesus. We have seen with eyes, heard with our ears, touched with our hands, the very righteousness, justice of God in Jesus Christ. For in Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father by the Spirit, God’s justice, God’s righteousness, real justice, real righteousness, the righteousness which brought all into Being, has come crashing into creation, outside the Law, a righteousness/justice yet witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. We see in Jesus’ faithfulness true Righteousness, the Justice that God is, that God also intends for God’s creation. We see Jesus’ faithfulness to Justice, to the Father, even unto the cross, the human rejection of God’s Justice for humans in the Kingdom that Jesus brought. One does not look to human rights for justice; one does not look to an open market, nor to the governance of the state for the distribution of goods. The righteousness of God has appeared in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The Justice of God has appears through the faithfulness of Jesus!

For whom is this justice? Who gets to participate in this very Justice that is God? Paul is clear: all who are believing. But we have to get belief right here. We’ve come to make believe that belief is about mental assent, abstract agreement. For Paul belief is more, it’s personal loyalty, trust and obedience. The justice of God has appeared in the faithfulness of Jesus – but for whom has it appeared? Isn’t it just automatically apparent for all to see? No! To see that God’s justice has appeared in Jesus takes loyalty to Jesus, faith in Jesus, a gift given by the Holy Spirit. True justice doesn’t come from acting like we can step out of our skins and be pure, universal rationality. We discover that true Justice, the Justice of God, has appeared in Jesus’ faithfulness when the Spirit pulls us into loyalty, allegiance to this Jesus and the kingdom of God that He lived and proclaimed. By participating in this kingdom by loyalty to its king, to the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus, we participate in the very Justice, Righteousness of God. Paul even goes so far as to say that we become the righteousness of God.

God’s justice has appeared! We see true Justice in the faithfulness of Jesus as we live in faith, personal loyalty, to Him!

2. Now we can see how our OT and Gospel readings go with the Romans passage. To build our lives on the words of Jesus, words that fulfill the Law, is to build our lives on the very Justice that is God.

If we are going to be faithful to Jesus, we must be faithful to his words. To be faithful to his words, we must know them, read them, immerse our selves in the Word that was with God, the Word that is God. Write on our foreheads. Teach our children. Let them become embedded in the deepest resources of our lives. For in so doing God will form us into persons who can witness to real Justice, a Justice that is Peace, amidst a world of conflict. We listen to the words of Jesus because in Him, the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled. He founded a just kingdom, the kingdom of God, in calling human beings to follow him. It is no mistake that this parable comes at the end of the most powerful summary of Jesus’ teachings – the Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus ends his speech to his disciples, like a new Moses on top of a mountain. The parable summarizes what type of kingdom the kingdom of God is, what Justice/Righteousness is.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.

"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

"You have heard that it was said to the men of old, `You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, `You fool!' shall be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.

"You have heard that it was said, `You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

"It was also said, `Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. "Again you have heard that it was said to the men of old, `You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply `Yes' or `No'; anything more than this comes from evil.

"You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you.

"You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Wisdom comes, friends, in building life on what ultimately matters – the words of Jesus.

Conclusion: Maybe that’s why we need to gather in homes to start our Bible studies, time of prayer, accountability to engage in the Works of Mercy that witness to God’s kingdom in Jesus. Maybe in the Providence of God the church has assigned this reading for this Sunday, outside even our own planning, on the Sunday when we really begin calling each other into this new practice for us. If so, what will happen in those meetings, the Word of God pressed into our lives can only emerge as we participate in the Kingdom of God here at this Table, that which we can touch, smell, eat, drink – participate in so that Christ’s body and blood literally becomes our own. For here, at this Table, by faith, we participate in the Kingdom proclaimed and lived by Jesus, the kingdom for which he was killed; the Kingdom for which the Father raised him; the Kingdom in which God gathers all the Saints, past, present, and future, the Kingdom by which we participate in the Justice, the Righteousness that is God so that we might be formed into righteous, just people. Come, friends, come in repentance; come in faith; come, and above all, be thankful.

Posted by johnwright at 10:45 AM | Comments (10)

Our memories are very fasinating phenomena. We are what we remember. Yet our memories are not exactly "mine"; they happen to us. Memories are socially constructed. We remember what we are tolds. We share life in its deepest nature with those with whom we remember. Memories are fundamentally political in nature, rather than what we've come to understand as 'psychological'.

So today I thought I'd share with you a sermon on remembering. It's interesting the fundamentally different type of memory recorded here amidst a society that is observing a day of memories. It includes remembering those who died -- but not while trying to take life. They died for a different cause. The church is constituted by very different memories than the nation-state's in which we live.

The sermon was preached in Germany yesterday by Benedict XVI. I must admit that I'm becoming a bit of a "Rome watcher" again. Yet pastorally and theologically, I found this a wonderful and moving sermon. It was presented at a National Eucharistic conference. Of course, a "national Eucharistic conference" is an oxymorom. Yet it is interesting how the homily undercuts the name of the conference in which it was presented. Good memories tend to do that. I found it on Zenit.org/English.

Code: ZE05052904

Date: 2005-05-29

Papal Homily at Italian Eucharistic Congress

"The Sacrament of Unity"

VATICAN CITY, MAY 29, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI gave today in Italian during the closing Mass of the 24th Italian National Eucharistic Congress, in the esplanade of Marisabella.

* * *

"Glorify the Lord, Jerusalem, Zion praise your God" (Responsorial Psalm). The psalmist's invitation, made also in the sequence, expresses very well the meaning of this Eucharistic celebration: We have gathered to praise and bless the Lord. This is the reason that has led the Italian Church to meet here, in Bari, on the occasion of the National Eucharistic Congress.

I also wished to join all of you today to celebrate with particular prominence the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ and, in this way, render homage to Christ in the sacrament of his love, and reinforce at the same time the bonds of communion that unite me to the Church in Italy and its pastors. My venerated predecessor, Pope John Paul II, would also have liked to be present at this important ecclesial event. We feel he is close to us and, with us, glorifies Christ, good shepherd, whom he can now contemplate directly.

I greet all of you with affection who participate in this solemn liturgy: Cardinal Camillo Ruini and the other cardinals present, the Archbishop Francesco Cacucci of Bari-Bitonto, the bishop of Apulia and the numerous bishops who have come from all over Italy; the priests, men and women religious and the laity, in particular, those who have cooperated in the organization of the congress. I also greet the authorities who, with their presence, emphasize that Eucharistic congresses are part of the history and culture of the Italian people.

This Eucharistic congress, which comes to a close today, intended to present Sunday again as a "weekly Easter," expression of the identity of the Christian community and center of its life and mission. The theme chosen, "We Cannot Live without Sunday," takes us back to the year 304, when Emperor Diocletian prohibited Christians, under pain of death, to possess the Scriptures, to meet on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist and to build premises for their assemblies. In Abitene, a small village in what today is Tunis, 49 Christians, meeting in the home of Octavius Felix, were taken by surprise on a Sunday while celebrating the Eucharist, defying the imperial prohibitions. Arrested, they were taken to Carthage to be interrogated by the proconsul Anulinus.

Significant, in particular, was the response given to the proconsul by Emeritus, after being asked why he had violated the emperor's order. He said: "Sine dominico non possumus," we cannot live without meeting on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. We would not have the strength to face the daily difficulties and not succumb. After atrocious tortures, the 49 martyrs of Abitene were killed. Thus, they confirmed their faith with the shedding of blood. They died but they were victorious; we now remember them in the glory of the risen Christ.

We, Christians of the 21st century, must also reflect on the experience of the Abitene martyrs. It is not easy for us either to live as Christians. From a spiritual point of view, the world in which we find ourselves, often characterized by rampant consumerism, religious indifference, secularism closed to transcendence, might seem such a harsh wilderness as that "great and terrible" wilderness (Deuteronomy), of which the first reading spoke to us, taken from Deuteronomy.

God went to help the Jewish people in difficulty with the gift of manna to make them understand that "man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3). In today's Gospel, Jesus explained to us for what kind of bread God wanted to prepare the people of the new covenant with the gift of manna. Alluding to the Eucharist, he said: "This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever" (John 6:58). The Son of God, becoming flesh, could become bread and in this way be the nourishment of his people journeying toward the promised land of heaven.

We need this bread to cope with the toil and exhaustion of the journey. Sunday, day of the Lord, is the propitious occasion to draw strength from him, who is the Lord of life. The Sunday precept, therefore, is not a simple duty imposed from outside. To participate in the Sunday celebration and to be nourished with the Eucharistic bread is a need of a Christian, who in this way can find the necessary energy for the journey to be undertaken. A journey, moreover, that is not arbitrary; the way that God indicates through his law goes in the direction inscribed in the very essence of man. To follow the way means man's own fulfillment, to lose it, is to lose himself.

The Lord does not leave us alone on this journey. He is with us; what is more, he wishes to share our destiny by absorbing us. In the conversation that the Gospel just recounted, he says: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him" (John 6:56). How can we not rejoice over such a promise? However, we heard that, in the face of that first proclamation, instead of rejoicing, the people began to argue and protest: "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (John 6:52).

To tell the truth, that attitude has been repeated many times in the course of history. It would seem that, deep down, people do not want to have God so close, so available, so present in their affairs. People want him to be great and, in a word, rather distant. Then they ask themselves questions to demonstrate that in fact such closeness is impossible.

However, the words Christ pronounced specifically in that circumstance retain all their graphic clarity: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53). Facing the murmur of protest, Jesus could have backed down with tranquilizing words. "Friends, he could have said, don't worry! I spoke of flesh, but it is only a symbol. What I wish to say is only a profound communion of sentiments."

But Jesus did not take recourse to such sweeteners. He maintained his affirmation with firmness, even in face of the defection of his own apostles, and did not change at all the concrete character of his discourse: "Will you also go away?" (John 6:67), he asked. Thank God, Peter gave an answer that we also assume today with full awareness: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68).

In the Eucharist, Christ is really present among us. His presence is not static. It is a dynamic presence, which makes us his, he assimilates us to himself. Augustine understood this very well. Coming from a Platonic formation, it was difficult for him to accept the "incarnate" dimension of Christianity. In particular, he reacted before the prospect of the "Eucharistic meal," which seemed to him unworthy of God. In ordinary meals man becomes stronger, as it is he who assimilates the food, making it an element of his own corporal reality. Only later did Augustine understand that in the Eucharist the exact opposite occurs: the center is Christ who attracts us to himself; he makes us come out of ourselves to make us one with him (cf. Confessions, VII, 10, 16). In this way, he introduces us into the community of brothers.

Here we are faced with a further dimension of the Eucharist, which I would like to touch upon before concluding. The Christ whom we encounter in the sacrament is the same here in Bari, as in Rome, as in Europe, America, Africa, Asia, Oceania. He is the one and same Christ who is present in the Eucharistic bread everywhere on earth. This means that we can only encounter him together with all others. We can only receive him in unity.

Is not this what the Apostle Paul said to us in the reading we just heard? Writing to the Corinthians, he affirmed: "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (1 Corinthians 10:17). The consequence is clear: We cannot commune with the Lord if we do not commune among ourselves. If we wish to present ourselves to him, we must go out to meet one another. To do so, the great lesson of forgiveness is necessary. We must not allow the destructive larva of resentment to take hold of our spirit, but open our heart to the magnanimity of listening to the other, of understanding, of the possible acceptance of his apologies, of the generous offering of our own.

The Eucharist, let us repeat, is the sacrament of unity. But, unfortunately, Christians are divided precisely on the sacrament of unity. All the more reason, therefore, that, supported by the Eucharist, we must feel stimulated to tend with all our strength toward that full unity that Christ ardently desired in the cenacle. Precisely here, in Bari, the city that keeps the bones of St. Nicholas, land of meeting and dialogue with Christian brothers of the East, I would like to confirm my wish to assume as a fundamental commitment to work with all my energies in the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all the followers of Christ.

I am aware that to do so, expressions of good sentiments are not enough. Concrete gestures are required that will penetrate spirits and stir consciences, inviting each one to that interior conversion that is the premise of all progress on the path of ecumenism (cf. Benedict XVI's Address to Representatives of Christian Churches and Communities and of Other Non-Christian Religions, April 25, 2005). I ask you all to undertake with determination the path of that spiritual ecumenism, which in prayer opens the doors to the Holy Spirit, the only one who can create unity.

Dear friends who have come to Bari from several parts of Italy to celebrate this Eucharistic congress: We must rediscover the joy of the Christian Sunday. We must rediscover with pride the privilege of being able to participate in the Eucharist, which is the sacrament of the renewed world. The resurrection of Christ took place on the first day of the week, which for the Jews was the day of the creation of the world. Precisely for this reason, Sunday was considered by the early Christian community as the day in which the new world began, the day in which Christ's victory over death the new creation began. Coming together around the Eucharistic table, the community was taking shape as the new people of God. St. Ignatius of Antioch called Christians "those who have attained new hope," and he would present them as persons "who live according to Sunday" ("iuxta dominicam viventes"). From this perspective, the bishop of Antioch wondered: "How will we be able to live without the one whom the prophets expected?" ("Epistula ad Magnesios," 9, 1-2).

"How will we be able to live without him?" We hear the echo of the affirmation of the martyrs of Abitene, in these words of St. Ignatius: "Sine dominico non possumus." Our prayer arises from here: may today's Christians again become aware of the decisive importance of the Sunday celebration so that we be able to draw from participation in the Eucharist the necessary drive for a new commitment to proclaim Christ "our peace" to the world" (Ephesians 2:14). Amen!

[Translation by ZENIT]

Posted by johnwright at 6:06 PM | Comments (15)

I haven't been very good about regularly ranting -- on my blog at least. Yet this weekend provides an excellent chance to get caught up. This is one of the most dangerous weekends of the year for Christians in the United States -- not merely because of the increased rate of traffic fatalities. It is a weekend when the full parody of the church that is the United States exerts its moral-shaping power to turn us into citizens of a particular nation-state through participation in its consumerist, capitalist economic system, thus coopting our bodies from our places within our local congregations and coopting our congregations from their place within the church catholic to supportive civil societies within the United States.

Of course, I'm talking that this is "Memorial Day Weekend". First we need to recognize that Memorial Day is a parody of All Saints Day on November 1 within the Christian calendar. On all Saints Day, Christians remember the nameless saints and especially martyrs who have gone before us. We remember those whose faithfulness God has used to pull us into the kingdom of God by the United States that we too might become like them, participating in the eternal kingdom through acts of mercy such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, not returning evil for evil but overcoming evil with good.

"Memorial Day" instead celebrates the sacrificial economy of the "saints" of the state -- those who have given their lives for the freedom of the citizens of the United States. We are told that these "sacrificial deaths" have been saved us from forces of evil so that we might live. Those killed within wars started by the state therefore take on the role of Jesus Christ, and thus, become "super-saints" in the world around us. Ironically, churches that incorporate Memorial Day recognition into their services replace Jesus with the parody -- remembering "anti-Christs", persons turned from horrible victims of state-sponsored violence to atoning saviors of human life.

Recently I've had friends such as Josh Gubser and Kyle Tau trying to think through atonement, especially substitutionary atonement so prevalent in American evangelical circles. We've gone back to read the supposed origin of this atonement theory, Anselm of Canterbury and discovered that Anselm is very different from those who have represented him. He clearly states that God did not will the Son's death, but that the Son willing took death as a result of his obedience, thus showing loyalty to God the Father over Satan, and thus re-established the rightfull honor of God and the beauty of creation in obedience to God. The Son, for Anselm, saves by his faithfulness to the Father, seen in his death. It is a sacrifice for us because, in being fully human, he undoes the shame of humanity in chosing to obey Satan over God.

Why then does this subsitutionary atonement as given by evangelical? I'm wondering. Some might say that the doctrine of salvation of Memorial Day built upon the substitutionary atonement of Christianity. As Jesus died "for us" so that we might live, the state subtly took the soteriology and applied it to war, the deaths of soldiers, and citizenship. But what if it was the other way around? What if the state soteriology of sacrificial death of its soldiers to sustain the freedom of its citizenship was then applied to Jesus? Thus the parody of salvation that the state and its wars bring then takes the parody right into the center of the life of the church. The church's own life becomes coopted without it even knowing it. This would be a good thing to check out historically.

But, of course, we have to remember the other dangerous facet of the weekend -- as a holiday, we have an extra day to consume, to travel, to engage in recreational activities, to buy -- and sell. Of course, such activities will remove us from our congregations on Sunday morning. The economy, stimulated by the sacrificial deaths of soldiers, becomes powered into the summer season when we all can engage in recreational activities to escape work by buying the best leisure that our money can by. Of course, as a result, church attendance plummets in the summer -- as does congregational giving. Memorial Day "jump starts" such activities by the state, ultimately giving us the type of freedom that the soldiers tied to give us -- freedom from any moral constraints outside our own economic status to pursue our own self-interest. Even if we resist the first temptation of Memorial Day, this second stands much more subtly in coopting our bodies.

What then shall we do? First, mourn. Mourn and lament the mindless, needless death of so many in the world in the 20th and 21st century. Mourn the victims of the genocides, the Holocaust, the WWI gas victims, those from Pearl Harbor, Dresden, Hiroshima. Remember -- not to legitimate the violence, but to see its true costs -- the wages of sin is death.

Second, rest! Sleep, enjoy time with family and friends in simple activities. Don't exhaust yourself with leisure, recreational activities. Read, sleep, pray, read the Scriptures -- be amazed that the state can give many of us a day off so that we might be renewed in our work for the Lord.

Third, worship! Even if you are away from your local congregation, make sure that you gather with believers. If the church has been coopted by Memorial Day activities, repent and mourn. Use the time for a personal lamentation, crying over Jerusalem much like Jesus did. Recognize that we too are implicated in such activities.

I plan to sleep, read (including re-reading Harry Potter), work on my book, watch some TV, spend time with family and friends, and maybe slip out for a second viewing of Episode III so that I can blog on it next week and refer to it in my class on Radical Orthodoxy on the nihilism of the univocity of (non)-Being. But that's another story!

Posted by johnwright at 9:35 AM | Comments (9)

Sunday was Trinity Sunday. As I reflected to prepare for my sermon in the passages, I really wanted to try and present to the congregation that God IS Triune. God as the only Necessary Being is thus completely different from we who are creation, yet our life is still bound up in God's. I therefore wanted to show how God is different from the god in which the United States society initiates people, and then tie this into participation in God's very Being in the Eucharist.

I was surprised, then, when last night I search on Zenit and found Bendict XVI's short reflections on Trinity Sunday that had some of the same concerns that I had, though expressed much more succinctly and poetically. Here's excerpt from Benedict's mediation:

"Jesus has revealed to us the mystery of God. He, the Son, has made us know the Father who is in heaven, and has given us the Holy Spirit, the Love of the Father and of the Son. Christian theology summarizes the truth about God with this expression: only one substance in three persons. God is not solitude but perfect communion. For this reason, the human person, image of God, is fulfilled in love, which is the sincere gift of oneself.

We contemplate the mystery of God's love by participating in a sublime way in the most holy Eucharist, sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, representation of his redemptive sacrifice."

Matthew 28:16-20

Introduction: I love my children, even if they are white American adolescents. Without them I could easily forget that I’m old – I’m starting to stare down 50. They think it’s funny; I’m thankful. I’m almost getting old enough to get a proper perspective on things. One of those things that I’m getting a perspective on is how our culture, maybe even our churches, especially Protestant churches, even myself, have forgotten to talk about God. We’ll talk about God for us, God in our lives, God helping me out, but we never talk about which God this is. Modern Christians have learned only to talk about God as an expression of human experience so much that we don’t even create interesting atheists. Christians were themselves once called atheists, because they denied that the gods of the Romans and Greeks were gods at all, but only idols. They knew that just because the society around them dropped the word ‘god’ didn’t mean the same thing that they meant. The Christians confessed that the God of Israel, now revealed in Jesus Christ, the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was the true God, the Creator of heavens and earth, from whom all things have come and to whom all things will return. Here on Trinity Sunday, our readings remind of this. The Creator God has revealed Godself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our Gospel reading reminds us that we are sent into the world in the name of this particular God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Immediately, we’re confronted with the fact that God is a whole lot stranger than we often think.

I think that it was on the first Sunday of Epiphany that I mentioned a little interview I had read with a sociologist named Christian Smith who studies the theological convictions of Americans. Kevin Modesto had the privilege of studying with him. His book has since came out, the theological convictions of American teenagers. Smith finds that teenager’s convictions are very much like adults in the United States. The god of Americans isn’t really very strange, just bigger than us and on our side. Listen to an interview that he conducted:

I. What is God like?
T. Um, Good. Powerful.
I. Okay, anything else?
T. Tall
I. Tall?
T. Big.
. . .
I. Where do you get your ideas about God?
T. The Bible, my mom, church. Experience.
I. What kind of experience?
T. He’s just done a lot of good in my life, so.
I. Like, what are examples of that?
. . .
T. I, well, I have a house, parents, I have the Internet, I have a phone, I have cable.

Smith calls this God “The God of contemporary Moralistic Therapeutic Deism”. This god is primarily a divine Creator and Lawgiver. He designed the universe and establishes moral law and order. But this God is not Trinitarian, he did not speak through the Torah or the prophets of Israel, was never resurrected from the dead, and does not fill and transform people through his Spirit. This God is not demanding. He actually can’t be, because his job is to solve our problems and make people feel good. In short, God is something like a combination of Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process”. (Smith, Soul Searching, p. 165) God becomes an object in what is around us just like any other object. God, though, has a special role. God is a Person just like us, except powerful enough to help us out.

The Living God, the True God is a whole lot stranger. In the Beginning, God created the heavens and earth. God is not the heavens and earth; God is not like us, or like anything within creation. God is different, not an object like other objects around us, except bigger. How different is God? Did you notice how we are to baptize? In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Notice anything funny about that? How many names are there? Three. Yet does the Scripture say in the names of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit? No. The Father, Son, Holy Spirit are one name, the name of the Holy One of Israel. The Creator God is not some force in the world. The Living God is not just like creation but with a deeper voice. The true God is strange, weird, different, not at all what we have been taught to project from the society around us – a Moral Therapeutic God who is good to us because we have cable. The name of God is not a stable something that we can describe with a single word. God’s name is threefold: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yes, God is a lot stranger than we tend to believe.

2. That’s why we are commanded to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

When we were initiated into the body of Christ by water and Spirit, we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not a “thing”, an object within creation, one who has a really powerful will that is separate from God’s own Being. Since God is Creator and we merely creation, we couldn’t even speak of God if God hadn’t revealed Godself. But God has revealed who God really is: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It’s important to understand this language into which we are baptized. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not terms of things or some sort of threefold substance. Father and Son do not refer to beings who are male; Spirit doesn’t mean that God has a feminine side to help the boys stay in line. The name of God that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are terms of relationship, three Persons that is the One God. Without a child, a father is not the father. A son can only be son with a father. Spirit is that which binds the Father and Son together as love, as gift. God has revealed to us that in God’s very Being gives and receives God’s own Life from God – God, as Triune, is at the same time Life-Giver and Life-Receiver. God’s sameness only comes in the eternal difference of Love and Desire for the Other that is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In our baptism, we are baptized into overflow of Giving and Receiving that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is the Source of the Son in love; the Son re-presents the will of the Father in love; the Spirit unites the Father and the Son as Love.

When we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are immersed into the name of the very Flux, Flow, Difference, love of the Creator who is God, the One in whom we live, and move and have our being. Baptism is immersion into the very life of Life, the One of whom all our language fails, not a thing to experience, but the One Who is Three, the Sameness in Difference that is Love. We do not know love in creation and then project it onto God and say, this is what God is like. No, this relationship that is God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, IS love, and in some way, we only know love in a small, puny, completely different way by that we participate in God by the Gift, the Spirit God gives us. As the Father, Son, Holy Spirit that is the One Name that is God, we see that Life, the Giving and Receiving of Life that is God, is not about power plays, is not about eclipsing difference by sameness, is not about an eternal conflict between competing self-interests, but a Harmony, Peace, Desire, Order, Love that is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It is this God, the True God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and no other into whom the resurrected Jesus commanded us to go and baptize.

Conclusion: God is Mystery, friends. God is for us, but God is for us only because God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has created us out of nothing, and then called us to participate in the Flow of Love that is God’s own Being. God is not our therapeutic divine Will to help us out on our terms when life gets hard because he’s got the power. God is eternal Love, Peaceableness, Harmony that calls all creation into a harmony that participates in the true, eternal Harmony that is God. So that we might participate in God, the Father sent forth the Son, Jesus Christ, and through the Son, the Spirit. God now calls us to this Table to be made the true body of Christ in the world through this mysterious body of Christ in the bread and cup, to give thanks to the Father, for the gift of the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Come in faith. And be thankful.

Posted by johnwright at 9:20 AM | Comments (8)

I've been a bit slow posting last weeks sermon, but here is is. I tried to take Jesus' words in John 20:19-23, "Peace be with you" very seriously. I wanted to not allow a public/private distinction to arise for peace, a dichotomy between "personal" and "public" peace.

As always your feedback helps!

John 20:19023

Pentecost – the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the Spirit of Life, for the Spirit is God. What we have in our Gospel reading this morning is a reminder that the Spirit is also a Spirit of mission, a mission of Peace. Let’s turn to our Gospel reading this morning.

1. The passage begins with the appearance of the resurrected Jesus. The Risen Jesus blesses his disciples with a command: Peace be with you.

The context of Jesus’ words is interesting. Of course, the disciples are huddled away in fear, fear that they will be next. But there’s more. Right after Jesus states, “Peace be with you,” he shows his hands and sides, the wounds of his crucifixion. Here the resurrected body of Jesus bears the marks of the violence of the world. He orders peace and then displays the atrocities of torture absorbed into his body without retaliation. Make no mistake. The world, in rebellion against God, shows its rebellion in bodies inscribed by violence. The world’s violence appears in the gaping, grotesque holes in Jesus body.
"Peace be with you." Jesus grants the disciples a blessing, but it also is a command. Yes, Jesus appears to his frightened followers and states a blessing – but in his statement about peace, the line between blessing and command is quite small. “Peace be with you.” The disciples aren’t peaceful – they are afraid. They are afraid because of broken social relations – they are afraid of the Jews. Jesus himself bears marks of the violence of the world. Yes, peace is a blessing. But what Jesus utters is a command – in light of what you are experiencing, peace be with you. Of course, with Jesus his command is a blessing, and his blessing is a command. But maybe we see it most here in his bodily bringing peace to his disciples.
Peace be with you. Jesus speaks to his disciple’s fear – peace, an inward state that allows bodies to function outside the realm of stress, outside the realm of panic, outside the realm of constant dissatisfaction with life. Peace be with you – Jesus speaks a response to the disciples in broken relationships with the Jews, their own people, maybe even their own families, because of their following Jesus. Peace be with you – Jesus speaks to a world where powers believe that the can justly inscribe the marks of their power by bringing violence into the world in order to bring peace through violence, freedom through war. Jesus states differently – to the inner life, to the social life, to the world – peace be with you. Jesus speaks to the disciples a blessing that God wants from all creation.
Jesus’ blessing is a command - "Peace be with you."

2. Yet Jesus does not just command the disciples; he empowers them to fulfill his command. Jesus breathes on them: Receive the Holy Spirit.
The order of Jesus’ words is so significant. Peace doesn’t just happen, not in our world. Jesus’ appearance before the disciples comes precisely in the lack of peace. The lack of peace draws forth the body of Jesus. But Jesus’ body has ascended – Jesus has gone to the right hand of the Father. How can the disciples sustain peace with Jesus gone from them?
"Receive the Holy Spirit" and he breathed on them. The Holy Spirit is the breathe of Jesus, the breathe of life. The Holy Spirit is that which animates human life from the dust that we are. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, because the Spirit continues the presence of God with us in the absence of Jesus. The peace of Jesus’ bodily presence to the disciples is now given to them in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an ecstatic power that emboldens for violence in the world, matching violence for violence. The Holy Spirit is the breathe of Jesus, the One who absorbed the violence of the world into his own body in faithfulness to the Father. The giving of the Holy Spirit is to continue the mission of Jesus, to be enfolded into the very peaceful Life that is God, in the world.
"Peace be with you; receive the Holy Spirit." Jesus gives the Spirit to empower the disciples for mission in their world: peace. Peace does not just happen; peace will not just happen. Peace results from creation being enfolded back into its true end which is God. As Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, the Spirit comes to enfold us into the Life that is the Triune God – to empower creation to live in peace. This is what we see at Pentecost. Babel is cured; the Spirit blows into the crowd and unity, harmony, peace emerges as the kingdom of God is proclaimed not to have ended with Jesus’ crucifixion, but continues because God has raised him from the dead. This is what we read in Galatians about the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Jesus breathes the Spirit upon his disciples to empower them to fulfill the blessing, the command that he has given them in their fear, their isolation, their removal from witness.
Jesus breathes on his disciples: for peace, receive the Holy Spirit.

3. Friends, hear the words of Jesus addressed to you: "Peace be with you; receive the Holy Spirit."
How often do we find ourselves huddled away in a room in fear? Let’s be honest. We don’t live in a different world than the disciples. As a matter of fact, just looking around us suggests that the violence of the world, the absence of peace, has reached new depths of nothingness and death. And we have to understand that how we’ve been taught to cut and divide “peace” just will not do. The violence of the world finds itself inscribed on the bodies of human beings; it is deeply embedded within me, I know. Once we’re taught that we are fundamentally consumers, not human beings, we will always live unpeaceful, dissatisfied with life, with persons, with conditions, with constant disruption in our passions because all has to meet certain subjective standards that only we set. The more unpeaceful with are in our own lives, the easier it is to develop the "gift" of finding faults in others. We can always justify our dis-ease, our lack of peace, in the conditions of relations around us. And we’re right. But rather than open ourselves to the Spirit’s cleansing, we instead can move in for the kill, continue cycles of disruption, develop habits of grumbling, and slowly the social networks of which we are a part, family, friends, church, slowly take on the passive-aggressive violence of the world around us. The more we are occupied by these conflicts, but trying to find peace within while dealing the conflicts in our social relations, the more we just let the violence conducted in the world go. Last night we had another shooting in the neighborhood here off of Polk Avenue. The paper this morning proclaims “Iraq desert offensive a success, U.S. says” and we don’t have energy to ask, what do they mean by success? Peace through violence? Closer to setting up military bases? The more life is consumed by little dramas created from disquiet within, the more the violence of the world is enabled to rage, and we can forget that we live in a country where torture has been condoned at the highest levels, a country that started a war on the basis of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist, and that seems to believe firmly that peace can be established with violence. We have to recognize that Jesus’ blessing of peace is very, very personal; it’s very, very social; and it is for the sake of the powers of the world which rule by continuing the lack of peace. We have to see that peace is not three different things here, but unfolded into each other. And therefore we have our mission in the world: "Receive the Holy Spirit", the breath of Jesus
As the breath of Jesus, the Spirit brings the Kingdom of God, the Gospel of peace that Jesus proclaimed, and lived, revealed by taking the violence of the world into his own body without retaliation into the depths of our lives so that our bodies might live in this peace. The Spirit comes, and cleanses the inward sin within, the sources of disquiet, of greed, of living as if we are consumers, and fills us with the Love that is God. To receive the Holy Spirit, opening our self continually to the Spirit’s presence, the breath of Jesus, comes in us in any way but passive, burning the dross within, sanctifying us holy so that we might live peaceably in the world. Being formed within by the breathe of Jesus, we are pulled into his Body, the Church, which itself becomes a witness of peace, unity, love in the world. Together we together become the dwelling of the Spirit, as we live as the body of Christ throughout the world, that there are other ways to live than that done by guns and depleted uranium tipped weapons. "Receive the Holy Spirit." Jesus’ command/blessing “Peace be with you” is anything by passive, but a call to receive the Holy Spirit for witness in the world. And the world needs the witness of the church today. We can condone no violence, especially not the violence, the lack, the disruption, within ourselves. We have to understand that this violence within comes from mis-shaped desires that are deeply formed within us by the fallenness of the world around. It is to these desires that the Breathe of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, comes to re-form. In little but profound ways, the Spirit empowers us for our mission of peace in the world.
This week I saw on Uruknet.info pictures of children born without eyes recently in Iraq. Genetic mutations and birth defects have risen greatly since the 1991 war and the latest invasion of Iraq. Experts are pretty sure that such mutations come from the depleted uranium weapons that have permeated the area. I thought of Jesus’ saying, “Those who have eyes, let them see.” Our mission of peace, friends, the mission of the kingdom of God, is anything but passive. But to try to short-circuit, and not hear Jesus’ call, “Receive the Holy Spirit” is only to get sucked back into the cycles of violence of the world. We must be made a people of peace in order to be a peaceful people in the world.
"Peace be with you; receive the Holy Spirit."

Conclusion: In our Eucharistic Prayer of consecration, the closing of the prayer has what is called the epiclesis, the calling upon the Spirit. The past and future Kingdom of God becomes present here in the mystical body of Christ at the Table. Here at this Table we have the embodiment of the peace that God wants to bring into our lives, and through our lives to the whole world. Come to the Body and Blood of Jesus this morning. Come and be thankful. Receive the Holy Spirit.

Posted by johnwright at 3:29 PM | Comments (4)

I still have about 80 papers to grade, but it's been a good week so far. I've finished a book on "priests" in antiquity, and begun my class on Radical Orthodoxy. I usually have a good time in class, but those who have gathered with me this week have made it extra special.

Monday my colleague Michael Lodahl gathered with us, and really helped. We spent 2 hours and 10 minutes reading 2 pages of an essay by John Milbank. Yesterday we ate breakfast as we ate (a to-order spinach and mushroom and cheese omlet : ) ), and my friend Charlie Pardue floated in from Kansas City. Of course, he should be here the whole time, but I'll take what I can get.

This morning my friend Kevin Timpe from the Department of Philosophy at the University of San Diego met with us as well -- and helped immensely with Augustine and Thomas to save them from those *#%@ modernist co-opters of their thought. But the real props (is that still a "cool" word to use?) go to Charlie Pardue, and especially my friend, Eric Lee. It had been years since I've seen Charlie fight to stay awake during a class, and the experience was refreshing for me! It brought back the old days of Introduction to Hebrew.

But Eric was extremely impressive!! Charlie and he went to see Star Wars Episode III last night -- and Eric, who is just reading along for 'fun', showed up and stayed alert and involved -- ingeniously linking at one point the agonistic ontology of immanence (ooo, that's fun to write -- I wonder what it means?) to the language of the sale's department at work.

What's interesting more interesting is that the class is helping me see even more deeply why God is not "the Force", and why Star Wars popularizes and expresses the deepest ontological convictions of the contemporary modern/post-modern liberal nation-state and its neo-liberal capitalist order, and thus, is so fun for people to see.

Of course, it looks like I'll be going to see the movie tomorrow -- if I get papers done. Maybe I report more on the movie than the fact that it made Charlie sleepy at 7:30 am, but didn't slow down Eric at all. It is obvious to me that the Force is strong with Eric, but not much in Charlie at all!

Posted by johnwright at 1:25 PM | Comments (11)

I'm still plowing my way through finals, reading only these and living relatively monastically to get the work done so that life might go on. I'm reading some on Augustine's Monastic Rules, and I came across the following little piece on prayer. I think that I find it profound, not for what it merely says about prayer, but more, how Augustine understands prayer to really be about God.

So here's the quote, taken from one of Augustine's letters:

Much talking in prayer is to burden the necessary petition with superfluous words; but much praying is to press him to whom we pray with a continual and devote stirring of the heart. For often the matter is effected more by groans than by words. For God places 'our tears in his sight, and our groaning is not hid from' him who created all things by his Word and has no need of human words.

Posted by johnwright at 3:12 PM | Comments (4)

Yesterday I posted on the British memo that provides evidence that the Bush administration, and even the President directly, decided to make the Weapons of Mass Destruction a front for a war for regime change in Iraq. Interestingly, an article in the latest New Yorker, an interview with Douglas Feith, indirectly confirms what the British memo states(www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050509fa_fact).

In the article Feith states about the Iraq War: "The main rationale [for the war] was not bassed on intelligence . . . It was known to anyone who read newspapers and knew history. Saddam had used nerve gas, he had invaded his neighbors more than once, he had attacked other neighbors, he was hostile to us [the United States?], he supported numerous terrorist groups. It's true that he didn't have a link that we know of to 9/11 . . . . But he did give safe haven to terrorists. . . . Given the ease, as everybody knows, with which one can reconstitute stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons if you have the capabilities which he had, I don'think the rationale for war hinged on the existence of stockpiles."

Here again is basically an admission that policy, not intelligence, drove the the Bush decision to invade Iraq. Intelligence was then shaped around the obvious "facts" and "history" to provide a public relations rationale for the war. This is exactly the same perspective as given by the British memo released last weekend.

I think what is most disturbing to me is that both the author of the article and Feith can only think in terms of the impact of the war on the United States. The decimation of Iraq and the Iraqi people does not even appear on the moral horizon. We mustn't forget that the decimation of the Iraqi people continues. This is not the "Culture of Life" that John Paul II talked about, but rather, the "Culture of Death."

Posted by johnwright at 8:02 AM | Comments (17)

Okay, I don't have much time -- for some reason the papers are not grading themselves. But the corporate news in the US has been so irresponsible this last week, that I have to share a memo published in Great Britain over the weekend. It is a secret memo, from a "Matthew Rycroft" from 23 July 2002 concerning "Iraq: Prime Minister's Meeting, 23 July". It has gotten Tony Blair additionally disgraced, but has not been picked up by the US media.

Here is the main quote of interest: "C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC [American National Security Council] has no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

Well, there it is. No response yet from the White House, and no one really pressing the issue. Instead, the "investigation" has blamed the intelligence system, not the policy makers, even though over a year before, it was already known in these diplomatic circles that policy was driving the intelligence. Moreover, the lack of planning of the aftermath of the invasion was already evident.

Of course, we shouldn't be surprised. Such is the way the principalities and powers work. The Democratic administration of Bill Clinton was just as adept at lying. But it should clarify one point: this was/is an unjust war, voluntarily and intentionally set as a war of aggression on false pretenses.

Didn't Saddam Hussein kind of do the same thing in the invasion of Kuwait?

Posted by johnwright at 3:10 PM | Comments (9)

I hadn't planned on preaching Sunday, but contingencies led me to proclaim the Word. The comments on my interaction with Peck's The Road Less Traveled have been really good and helpful. I hope my language wasn't too bizarre in the post. I do plan to share some thoughts on psychology in the near future. I don't think that we can understand the psychological culture that we live in without also understanding the fundamental ways that we are shaped into consumers.

So in the extended Entry is my sermon from last Sunday. I really don't ask to preach on texts on non-retaliation -- they just seem to pop up once you start reading the Scriptures!!

1 Peter 3:10-18
John 15:1-8

To read our passages from 1 Peter and the Gospel of John together is important. The wisdom of the church through the years to read these passages during the Easter season should not be lost on us. Here is the good news that makes sense only in light of the resurrection of Jesus. If we do not live differently because God the Father has raised the Son from the grave, then, well, we aren’t living within the fullness of reality that God has brought to pass. It’d be like me living like Carl had never been born – and, believe me, I’ve tried. But it just doesn’t work – there’s the big hairy, cut kid that drives me around every now and then, and I might as well enjoy the freedom that Carl brings me, freedom to laugh, to love, to share wisdom, to learn wisdom. God has raised Jesus from the grave, and the situation of life has changed for all of humanity in Him. And our readings point the way for us to live in the newness of the resurrection.

1. And it seems to me that the first point begins quite simply in 1 Peter 3:15: Sanctify Christ in your heart as Lord.

Such a simple phrase, but it is very profound. It’s kind of strange language for us today, though. Sanctify: set apart, make holy; Christ: as I tell my class, Christ was not Jesus’ last name. It is the term for the Jewish king, the Messiah: Lord: a wonderful term: it means someone that you are placed under; it could be one’s head of household, one’s boss; but more, it was the term used for the Emperor. In your heart: here is the seat of our affections, the origins of our desires, the place of our passions, our emotions, our will. To sanctify Christ in your heart as Lord is to live with your desires, your allegiances, your passions centered on Jesus, the Jewish messiah, crucified and raised, as the center of all human existence, indeed, the social, political center of true humanity. Sanctify Christ in your heart as Lord.

To hear why it is so important to live with Christ sanctified in our hearts as Lord we have to identify ourselves with the receives of this letter, sojourners, resident aliens, a group that has its fundamental social and political loyalties to a place outside the political, social world in which we live, so that one is not given privileges or trusted with responsibilities. That’s us, friends. I read today in the paper that America’s most prominent philosophy, Richard Rorty claims that unless “religion” is kept “private” then it is a danger to democratic nations. And he’s right. But confessing Christ as Lord means you can’t keep it private. It sets us apart as a people who just live life differently. I listen every now and then to a Los Angeles talk radio station. I hear that a group of “citizens” of the United States have taken upon themselves authority to “protect” imaginary lines in the desert called a “border.” Then I sat with a pastor of a Church of the Nazarene who told me that half of his congregation were people these supposed “citizen heroes” would take out of his congregation. He just needed to protect his people from the “Minutemen”. He just didn’t recognize the citizenship of this world. Yet the power to conform, to assimilate, is always at work. As a minority group we have to not conform in ways that matter amidst the world in which we live.

That is why the prepositional phrase “in your heart” is so important. Our passions are not separate from our intellect, our rationality, but the heart here recognizes the importance of our desire. To know what is good is not sufficient in itself; if we desire false goods don’t help us much either. Our desires must come together in the true Good, the Triune God, for us. To love Christ is real attachment. He is not dead; he has risen. The Spirit has been given so that we might love him in faith. Even in his absence, Christ is materially manifest to us in the consecrated bread and the wine here at the Table and in the bodies of the poor in the world. We face pressures to conform to the loyalties of world around that can subtly shape our desires. We see in our lives in everything from behaviors like gambling and vulgarity to more powerful, subtle responses of getting even, constant complaining about others faults, to deep set prejudices that life is about my comfort with prejudices attitudes against the poor, those of different skin pigmentation, different first languages. Desire for Christ as Lord reshapes, keeps allegiance central, adds to discernment to order the goods of our lives correctly, because we discover how to use all that God has given us in light of loving God in Christ because Christ has been sanctified as Lord in our hearts.

The message is so simple and so profound for us: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Set the desires of your affection in Christ so that the rest of your life might find its proper order in God!

2. Why? As a group that does not live with the same allegiances as those around us, suffering will come our way.

Okay, let me just come clean. This passage presupposes that those living faithfully for Jesus Christ are going to face unjust suffering. There. Live with it. Become a Christian, learn how to suffer for the right things. And then, learn to react, not to legitimate those who are reviling you, but to shame them by your goodness seen in not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you have been called.

Following Christ does not reduce your suffering; it is not a means for upward social mobility amidst groups who do not sanctify Christ as Lord in their hearts. Suffering will come, will come from at least three different areas: (1) socially, politically from not sharing the same allegiances of those around you; (2) from engaging in the works of mercy, feeding the hungry, showing hospitality to the outsider; giving drink to the thirsty, visiting those in prison; clothing the naked, overseeing the sick; burying the dead; (3) living locally as a member of a congregation, a local church of Jesus Christ. In some ways, we can handle the first the easiest. When we are blatantly dismissed for our commitment to Christ, it’s easy to handle because, well, it’s just so clear cut. It’s frustrating, but clear. The second, suffering by engaging in the works of mercy, we often deny by pretending that this is a call just for a few, not for all Christians. But then, getting involved, engaging these works opens us into the problems of discovering that we have different social, political allegiances because we discover Christ amidst the poor. We suffer with those who suffer. We want to get angry with those persons and whole systems that make such friends suffer; we hurt that we cannot wiggle our noses and make everything better. It’s easy to get angry, depressed, exhausted, worn out, lose hope, become cynical, become disappointed, even mad, when those we try to walk with don’t want to walk as we would like them to. We want to fix everything, rather than let the love of God change us by forming us into persons who learn to love God in everything because we have sanctified Christ as Lord in our hearts.

But maybe the third, the suffering from living locally as a member of a congregation, even this congregation, is the hardest. For you will suffer when you live locally as a member of a congregation. It is interesting that the v. 9 follows v. 8, the exhortation to the congregation to live in the unity of the spirit, sympathy, love of the sisters and brothers, to have a tender heart and a humble mind. This doesn’t make the moral failings of the body of Christ and individually, it members, right – never! Yet when you live as part of a whole group who has sanctified Christ as Lord in their hearts, the rest of our passions may not have been formed to our center. Each individual brings experiences, perceptions, patternings not consistent with Christ into the life of a congregation, or even just needs to learn how to let the different members be molded into one body. Even leadership can fail, may I say, not trying to do so, by lack of wisdom or even our own sin. We can so easily become jaded, complain about “them”, “that church”; we can never allow the word “we” to be used. And when we even allow ourselves to use the word “we” for our identification with a congregation, we discover that “we” can hurt us more than “they” can. Social processes of getting to know or allowing to be known can become difficult, because the only skills we possess are the skills given to us from the world with whom we don’t share the same allegiances. It is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong. Do not return evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you have been called. Love life, see good days, keep you tongue from evil and your lips for speaking deceitfully. Turn away from evil and do right. Seek peace and pursue it. And this will mean taking the suffering of a congregation within oneself, not in dishonesty, but in love, and openness, and blessing for those that God has called together into Christ’s body. It means seeking the best for the other, not being consumed by patterns of negativity, but keeping your conscience clear. It means learning how to forgive, not to act like someone is right when they aren’t, but to live in love for the good of all. As a minority under siege, it’s easy to feel the pressure and divide, to withdraw, to dismiss and complain. But the hope for survival, let alone witness, of sojourners and aliens, means learning how to let the suffering into our bodies without having the suffering so break our passions, our emotions, into patterns of intense agony so that our bodies become broken before their time by the stress of living for Christ in the world. If we are going to suffer, we have to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts to allow this suffering to form us into a people who love God in all things, and therefore, our neighbors as ourselves, even when our neighbors are members of our own families and our own congregation.

Sanctify Christ in your heart as Lord; because in living for what is just in this world, the kingdom of God, suffering will come.

You see why Christ said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Abide in me, and I will abide in you.” Abide in Christ’s love. Come in faith to the Supper of the Lord this morning. Come to let Christ, in the bread and the cup, abide in you, that you might abide in him, and thus, abide in God. Allow God prune you to bring forth fruit, that together, we might witness the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Posted by johnwright at 7:38 PM | Comments (31)